This invention relates generally to bistable devices, and, more particularly, to a bistable device capable of effective operation within the near millimeter and submillimeter wavelength regions.
Bistable devices have been found to have great utility in a number of already existing systems which include modulators or other devices utilizing switches, latches or logical operations. Heretofore, bistable devices have operated in the optical wavelength region and were generally divided into three classes; those which employed a nonlinear optical medium, hybrid devices in which an "artificial nonlinearity" is created by detecting the transmitted power of a resonator and feeding the signal back to an internal electro-optic element and a new class of hybrid multistable optical devices which do not require a resonator and are fully described in a paper entitled Incoherent Mirrorless Bistable Optical Devices by E. Garmire et al, Applied Physics Letters, Volume 32 (5), Mar. 1, 1978, pgs 320 and 321.
An ever expanding wavelength region of interest is the submillimeter and nearmillimeter wavelength regions such as produced by a CO.sub.2 optically pumped laser used in reconnaissance, communications, radar, imaging systems, pollution detection devices, frequency standards, and spectroscopy. Unfortunately, the bistable devices, as listed above, are not readily adaptable for use with systems in the submillimeter or near millimeter wavelength regions. Consequently, with the increased applicability of the this wavelength region, it has become increasingly necessary to provide bistable devices which are effective.